The Tripods (Book)
The Tripods is a series of young adult novels written by John Christopher, beginning in 1967. The first two were the basis of a science fiction TV series, produced in the United Kingdom in the 1980s. It is loosely inspired off ''The War of the Worlds''. Synopsis The story of The Tripods is a variation on post-apocalyptic literature, wherein humanity has been enslaved by "Tripods": gigantic three-legged walking machines, piloted by unseen alien entities (later identified as "Masters"). Human society is largely pastoral, with few habitations larger than villages, and what little industry exists is conducted under the watchful presence of the Tripods. Lifestyle is reminiscent of the Middle Ages, but small artifacts from the Modern Age are still used, such as watches. Humans are controlled from the age of 14 by implants called "Caps", which suppress curiosity and creativity. Some people, whose minds are broken by the Caps, become vagrants. According to The City of Gold and Lead, Masters begin to believe that humans should be capped at an earlier age "because some humans, in the year or two before they are Capped, become rebellious and act against the masters"; but this cannot be done because Capping must wait until the brain-case has stopped growing. Plotline ''The White Mountains'' (1967)https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Tripods&action=edit&section=3 edit Life goes on largely as it had in the pre-industrial era, excepting that all adult humans are subject to Tripod control. Protagonist Will, a thirteen-year-old boy living in the (fictional) English village of Wherton, is looking forward to the next "Capping Day", until a chance meeting with a mysterious uncapped man named Ozymandias[2] prompts him to discover a world beyond the Tripods' control. He is accompanied by his cousin Henry and a French teenager named Jean-Paul, nicknamed "Beanpole". The novel climaxes with Henry and Beanpole discovering that earlier, when Will had been captured by a Tripod, he had been unknowingly implanted with a tracking device. When Henry and Beanpole remove the device, a nearby Tripod attacks them; but the boys defeat the Tripod and eventually join the resistance, located in the titular White Mountains. ''The City of Gold and Lead'' (1967)https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Tripods&action=edit&section=4 edit Main article: The City of Gold (The Tripods) After a year in the White Mountains, the resistance charges Will, Beanpole, and a German boy, Fritz, to infiltrate a Tripod city by competing in a regional sporting exhibition. Will, a boxer, and Fritz, a runner, win their respective contests, while Beanpole fails to win in the jumping events. The winners are taken to the Tripod city in a pressurised dome astride a river. Inside the city, the boys discover the Tripods' operators, whom they refer to as the "Masters". Human males are slaves inside the cities, while beautiful females are killed and preserved for the Masters to admire. Slaves are furnished with breathing masks to survive the aliens' atmosphere, but are rapidly exhausted by the stronger artificial gravity and must therefore be periodically replaced. Although Fritz is abused by his Master, Will is treated as a privileged pet by his. Eventually, Will's Master reveals a plan to replace the Earth's atmosphere with the Masters' toxic air to enable full control of the Earth. When the Master finds Will's diary, Will kills him to maintain the secret. With the assistance of Beanpole, Will escapes, and they return to the White Mountains. The story's title refers to the gold colour prevalent in the Masters' cities, as well as the leaden weight of the increased gravity on the human slaves. ''The Pool of Fire'' (1968)https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Tripods&action=edit&section=5 edit Will and Fritz travel to Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and the Middle East to organize resistance against the Tripods. The resistance, having ambushed a Tripod and captured a Master, discover that alcohol has a strong soporific effect on them, and use this knowledge to simultaneously attack their cities. Having introduced alcohol into the aliens' city water systems, two raiding groups kill the Masters by forcing open airlocks and exposing the unconscious aliens to Earth's atmosphere; but the attack on the last city (located in Central America) fails. A secondary plan is undertaken using hot air balloons and newly developed bombs. The attack is initially unsuccessful as the timers on the bombs cause them to detonate either before making contact with the dome of the city, or after the bomb has fallen clear. Henry jumps from his balloon onto the city's domed roof and holds the bomb in place, killing himself but shattering the dome. Earth's atmosphere kills the Masters, and Henry is remembered as a hero. Several years later The Masters' atmosphere seeding spaceship arrives and destroys the remains of their cities, presumably to prevent the humans from reverse engineering their technology - although Beanpole notes that they have already learned much from the cities - then leaves. Modern human technology which was halted during the Masters' rule is rediscovered rapidly, including the theory of space travel. The saga ends with the Resistance leader Julius being deposed, and as a result the alliance built during the resistance falls apart, with nationalistic hostilities appearing, each country going their separate ways in contrast to Julius' efforts to unite the planet. ''When the Tripods Came'' (1988)https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Tripods&action=edit&section=6 edit When the Tripods Came is a prequel written twenty years after the publication of the original trilogy. The plot follows the description of the conquest given in the second book of the main trilogy. Fearing the technological potential of humanity, the so-called "Masters", unable to defeat humanity in a conventional war, hypnotize people through a television show called The Trippy Show, later using Caps to control them permanently. As in the original trilogy, the narrator of When the Tripods Came is a young English boy. As society slowly falls under the control of the Masters, he and his family escape to Switzerland, which has mounted the longest-lasting resistance. When the Swiss are eventually enslaved, the narrator and his family establish the "White Mountains" resistance movement of the original trilogy. Link To Tripods Wiki http://thetripods.wikia.com/wiki/The_Tripods_Wiki Category:The War of the Worlds adaptations Category:Novels and Novellas